Us + Disney = Awesome

[ziggystardust]

Better late than never I say, this trip happened almost a year ago. I started writing it before we even left, but then life got in the way which it tends to do. But I was reminincing about our trip and decided to put things down on paper. I am not much of a writer, def. no where near the likes of Vettechick, ZZub, and now my new fave Twinkiemama, but I hope you all enjoy!

Cast

Me: (25)Crazy planner. Every conversation has WDW or the Dis in it some how
DBF: (29)Puts up with all my babbling about WDW, but loves it just as much. Secret agenda: to get us to move to Orlando very very soon.
K: (26) excited about the trip but not at all interested in planning. Looking more forward to people watching than anything else.
BF aka B: (20 something, don’t know for sure, as he is not my BF). Basically the first time really meeting him was to discuss this trip

Flashback to about 2 months before our last trip (10/04).

While shopping for sneakers, DBF says to me, “You know that this is going to be our last trip for a while”.

I cringe and ask, “How longs a while?”

He says "at least a year".

Now my face uncrinkles a bit b/c while I love WDW, with one exception, I have never been more than once a year, so I'm not that devastated.

Fast forward, but not all the way.

Its early May late April, we start discussing our summer plans. I suggest a road trip. DBF says we should really do something small. Ok we'll take a short road trip, only like 4 days, to DC, go to a few museums, maybe we'll hit up Busch Gardens in Va. It’ll be fun. A month goes by and now we are going to WDW for 11 days. I don't know how DC turned into WDW, or how 4 days turned into 11, and whatever happened to that year long break but I'm not asking any questions! I'm going to Disney World!!

We hadn't booked anything yet when I see word of a new pin code email on the Dis. I call up DBF (as I'm not allowed to check email at work) and scream, “You need to check your email! There's a new email! Check your email!”

His response, "Ok but not now, I'll do it later"

Me, screaming inside, "ok, call me when you do."

I get impatient and call WDW myself to see if there are any codes attached to my name, I have been lucky in the past. The CM checks, and nothing. I check under DBF's name, nothing. Ok whatever, we were going to go anyway. Later, I start rationalizing to DBF that the email code was just free dining anyway, and we really didn't need that. It wasn't that great of a deal, yadda yadda yadda. After about 5 minutes I hear,

"Oh yeah, I got that email for the free food."

"WHAT?!"

You know it really is a great deal! We decide that we should invite my friend and her new BF. He's not yet a "D" BF b/c he's only been to WDW once when he was 12, and actually asked if Universal was included. My friend K, has only been to PI, which in itself is weird but I digress. I ask them, they say yes, off to planning.

I email details to K. I offer to plan, but want their input, after all it is their vacation too. I tell her to at least pick a few places they want to eat. A few days later I get...

"I was told that we need to eat breakfast at the castle and I want to eat at Animal Kingdom"

Ok 2 problems with this sentence. 1- its already past the 90 day mark and 2- Animal Kingdom - WHAT?! Apparently, in whatever book that was loaned to her by the same person that suggested CRT, it says that AK is a restaurant and not a park.

That's all I hear from her regarding the vacation for 2 months (3 weeks before lift off), I then get an email that says "When are we leaving?" Apparently, she doesn't have a counter like I do!

So here’s where the pixie dust is sprinkled all over this trip (as if it wasn’t already)... I call and get CRT. I could have had b’fast, but I opt for lunch b/c it fits better in the schedule. I decide a few days later to just see if they have a cancellation for an illuminations cruise. I call and get an illuminations cruise. Amazing I say!

So the trip is set. DBF and I are driving straight through arriving on Aug 31st. We’ll be staying at Pop, my friends will be meeting us there on Sept 2-7th. On the 7th, we will be switching over to POR, a resort that DBF has wanted to stay at since we passed it one night on the boat from PI a couple of years earlier.

Now for the downside of it all. Right around the same time K was asking when our vacation was she was also experiencing chest pains. She went to the doctor to find out some not so good things. She has since quit smoking, as did her BF (we’ll see how happy they can be in the happiest place on earth minus nicotine) and was told there could be more problems. So Ms. I’m going on every ride and dragging you with me, might have to skip out on some of the more intense rides. I don’t mind, I’m not a roller coaster person, but I hope she's ok with it.

So wish us luck, its the first trip where we’re going with friends and the first time I’m going to be trapped with my DBF for 18 hours straight. I figure if I make it back here with at least one of those relationships in tack, I’m good.

 

[Tanya90210]

Great start... can't wait to read more

 

[lauren_elizabeth]

Love the trip report already!

 

[pumba]

thanks so much for your great start. I know we did the same thing this past May. Started off as a week and we ended up almost two weeks...gotta love the guys.....they love Disney as much as we do.....

 

[ziggystardust]

Day 1.

We decided that leaving NY at around 8 pm would be better for traffic reasons. This wasn’t the original plan and b/c of this we were both working that day. It wasn’t so bad for me, I went to work at 9, after next to no sleep (pre-vacation excitement) but my DBF had to be at work at 7am after working until really late the night before. The plan was that he would come home, nap, I would make dinner, load up the car and then we would be off. All that happened except the nap part. No worries though, we were on our Disney high.

We made pretty good time. I won’t go into too many details about a boring road trip but 2 things to mention though, DBF found out that he hates North Carolina and he discovered South of the Border which he is still amazed by (we hit NC at about 3-4 in the morning right when exhaustion was setting in. That added to the monotonous scenery along 95 really got to DBF- I on the other hand was sleeping). Oh also a little bit of advice - drinking 4 high energy drinks in a row, not such a good thing.

We did get a little turned around once we got to Orlando, thanks to awful Mapquest directions and driving for 18 hours. Otherwise all was great and I look back on it with fond memories. sniff sniff. We arrived around 2, I think, it was a blur. Our room was ready, 50s section, 3rd floor, corner. We told the gentleman checking us in that we were expecting another couple in a few days and we had requested neighboring rooms. He “guaranteed” us that room. Now I know better, but he used those words. We ate some food, crashed for a few hours and headed to the marketplace to wander around.

Day 2

Slept in, it took us a while to really feel like our normal selves after that car ride. As we were leaving our room, we noticed that the room we were “guaranteed” was having a fridge and a crib delivered. Now last time I checked, my friend didn’t have a kid so I knew something was up. DBF called the desk and chaos ensued. Apparently there was no reservation under my friend’s name and there was no way to get a new room. Which I thought was a little odd considering POP is huge!?This meant a trip to the front desk, twice. Everything was straightened out, but it took a while and a bit of stress. End result was that there was a reservation for my friend (spelt correctly and everything) and we would just move to a different part of the same building to have rooms next to each other. This was supposed to be a lazy day too, but with everything that happened it wasn’t. We now had to repack and check our bags with Bell Services. We visited some of the hotels. We rode in the front on the monorail for the first time!!! We ate at Earl of Sandwich, DBF had been craving this since our last trip and has since started a whole new craving. When we returned to the hotel our bags had magically made their way into our new room, which was on the same floor but now it was over looking the pool. It was a really great location.

We called it an early night b/c we would have to pick up our friends at the airport very early.

Next Up: Our friends early morning arrival and DBF what did you do?!?

 

[graciespeaks]

Good start!!!!!

 

[taeja71]

so glad you had a great time!

 

[lauren_elizabeth]

Sorry to hear about the mix-up at POP!
Looking forward to more!

 

[fizz13]

Great start, shame disney use words they don't mean , looking forward to the rest,

 

[OhMari]

Glad you decided to post your Trip Report. I recognize your picture from other boards and love the picture of your dog. Hope to see more...

 

[OhMari]

Glad you decided to post your Trip Report. I recognize your picture from other boards and love the picture of your dog. Hope to read more...

 

[ziggystardust]

Who says I never finish anything I start...

Day 3

We awoke bright and early to go pick up my friends at the Airport. Their flight was due to arrive around 8am. We got to the airport no problem and waited a little by the baggage claim for them to arrive. There were some crazy characters in the airport that day, and no I'm not talking about Stitch. It made for a very fun wait. As I see my friend walking towards me, I see this look of utter disgust on her face. Now, if you remember, she wasn't supposed to come on this trip. Her doctor told her no vacation, no planes, and no getting out of bed. She doesn't really listen. So I'm all concerned about her health and well being, I come to find out that being on a plane at 6am with her BF was the source of her pain. What a relief.

Jump into the car, head back to POP to get them all checked in and then we are off to MK. We have a lunch date with Cinderella. (while waiting for my friends to check in at POP, DBF went to fill up his camel back with water- a camel back is basically a back pack thats a big water bottle- and somehow managed to get all of the water down one pant leg as opposed to in the bag. I have a picture that I"m just dying to put up but alas its not digital and my scanner is not working right now)

We were pressed for time and I hate feeling rushed. But we got to CRT only a few minutes late and were seated right away. This was my first time in the castle, my parents never even took me here when I was young. Honestly the only reason I even thought to make an ADR was b/c it was the one place K had mentioned while planning. We had a blast, took a bunch of pictures and started a game on who would get water dropped on them next. Apparently the roof in the castle is a little bit leaky (even though it wasn't raining).

After lunch we were off to do some rides. While we were in Pirates it started to rain heavily. Can't beat Florida in Aug/Sept! I was all ready to move on to the next place. B and K and other plans. They wanted to wait it out. I won and we were off to the Enchanted tiki room.

We rode a bunch of rides, B forced K on Space Mountain which she secretly loved but told B she hated it. We got a great great spot in the rose garden for wishes and really loved every minute of it as always. I figured we would take our time getting out of MK, so we wouldn't be right in the middle of thousands of people. But waiting wasn't going to do any good. One problem I have with POP is that there are too many people and too few buses to go around. The line was huge, and I'm so not exaggerating. It was so long that we decided to hop a monorail to the Contemporary and then a bus to Downtown Disney, then another bus to Pop. I really think we got back to the hotel before some of those people that were waiting. Either that or I just took my over exhausted friends on a hour and 1/2 tour of Disney transportation. Oh well. We were back at Pop ready to fall asleep.

Next stop: Epcot.

 

[WDW Poly Princess]

Great report so far! Funny how "a short trip" always seems to grow! My "couple of days" in Oct. have already turned into 8!

Looking forward to the rest!

 

[ziggystardust]

Day 4

Woke up bright and early. Not crazy early though. We started off the day right with some Mimosas in the room (since we drove we were able to bring a whole bunch of little champagne bottles - great way to start the day - hey I was on vacation). Then we all headed down to the POP food court for a croissant. We were off to Epcot.

Epcot is my absolute favorite park, it never used to be though . In fact, all the times I came to WDW with my parents, I dreaded this park. My mother always had to eat in Germany but somehow I still never have. My sister and I would make a break for it around that time and hang out in one of the other countries until they were done. It was usually America, see how cultured I was. But now I love Epcot. Love Love Love it. Maybe b/c I can drink while strolling or that I can actually shop for things other than Mickey Mouse related items (I love Mickey as much as the next Dis'boarder but its nice to have a break). We hit up Soarin' which was amazing. We came up to test track and I of course love this ride. My friend K was a little hesitant to ride b/c of her illness but I was able to convince her that she drives faster in her car - so she hopped on. Around lunch time we were in the world showcase. I figured we would easily find a counter service in one of the countries. I for some reason was convinced that every country had a table service restaurant and a counter service one. I was wrong. Well, maybe I was, I still don't know. Maybe there were just some countries that I didnt' want to eat at. We ended up in China. There were only 2 things on the menu that I would eat (i'm a picky eater). Apparently B and K thought the same and the 3 of us ordered the same thing. DBF wanted to be different and ordered the other item I could have had. And guess what, B, K, and myself HATED what we ate (couldn't tell you what it was) but we all loved what DBF got. So the 4 of us are all sharing on measly little meal. Yeah we were hungry later, which was great b/c we had ADRs for Le Cellier. Yay!

I usually leave the parks around mid -day, just for a break but since this was B and K's first time here, it seemed like there was just too much to see and do. We ended up staying the entire day which took its toll on K later. But we all loved it while we were doing it, so can't really complain. After some more strolling and drinking and rides we head to Le Cellier for dinner. We were just a little early but ended up waiting there for over an hour, which was awful. There wasn't even a place to sit, so we were basically standing in the way of everyone. But the food was AMAZING. And this was really the first time we actually saw the free dining plan work. We got our bills - ours was around the $80 mark and B and K's broke $100. But it was all free. Can't get much better than that. After totally stuffing ourselves, we went out to watch illuminations. One of my favorites. We got a great spot over on the landing under the bridge between France and Britian. Great spot right next to the illumination cruise boats. I so wanted to tell DBF that I had reserved one for later in the week, but it was a surprise. I just kept smiling, so he thought I was either really happy to be there or just a little bit tipsy. I'll say it was a little of both. Illuminations was great, why wouldn't it be. We were afraid of the bus situation so we headed out towards the Boardwalk. Wandered around there for a little then hopped a bus to Downtown, then to Pop. Round about way, but I always love the boardwalk. Can't wait to stay there some day.

Up Next- Resort Day, Ohana and K takes a night off